Digital Lifescapes

While the wearables trend began with the wristband device, sensor miniaturization has now progressed to a wide range of form factors. As an example, the 'hearable' or ear-based wearable device combines these sensor inputs and additional computing power with a variety of new use cases for the ear. More miniaturization will help drive the capabilities of the market, as well as push hearables capability into the mid-tier device market. This sector is uniquely positioned, with more mainstream market pricing, to change both the wearables space and the existing ear-based device sector. Being able to successfully navigate this evolving landscape will require both a clear vendor vision on what the sector can achieve and an awareness of what existing technology partners can bring to the market. Hearables Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, there will be an estimated 417 million hearables in use by 2022. This includes fitness-fo...

The global retail sector has been greatly impacted by the shift to online eCommerce. That being said, remarkable in-store innovation continues to transform the retailer employee and customer experiences. Retailers are beginning to use wearable technology to improve processes and customer satisfaction. Retailer wearables provide in-store employees with access to information such as stock levels, as well as to facilitate communication with team members. This allows shopper requests to be resolved faster and ensures that the employee continues to interact with the customer, improving the overall shopping experience. Retail Wearables Market Development ABI Research forecasts enterprise retail wearable shipments will reach nearly 10 million in 2022, increasing from just 2 million in 2017 -- that's a CAGR of 38 percent. This makes retail one of the fastest growing enterprise wearable verticals, with numerous devices improving store operations. Devices such as smartwatches, smar...

One of the interesting new application categories for Internet of Things (IoT) technology is the augmentation of existing consumer electronic devices. While most of the market coverage to date has been focused on wrist-based wearables, one of the less prominent areas has been the development of ear-based wearables -- also know as hearables. A new worldwide market study by Juniper Research has found that revenue from the overall category of 'smart audio' hardware will more than triple over the next four years, rising from an estimated $1.4 billion this year to over $5.5 billion by 2020. While Juniper expects part of this to be driven by ear-based wearables like the Bragi Dash and HERE Active Listening, the category will be most successful in the smart home space, with Amazon Echo, Google Home and other unit-based smart audio devices vying for popularity as the next platform for smart devices. Smart Audio Market Development The resulting research report found that the lik...

According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), Apple shipped a total of 3.6 million wearable device units in the second quarter of 2015 (2Q15) -- that's 800 thousand units behind the market leader's (Fitbit) 4.4 million units. IDC reports that the total wearables shipment volume for the quarter came to 18.1 million units -- that's up 223.2 percent from the 5.6 million units shipped in 2Q14. "Anytime Apple enters a new market, not only does it draw attention to itself, but to the market as a whole," said Ramon Llamas, research manager at IDC . IDC believes that the Apple participation benefits multiple players and platforms within the global wearables ecosystem, and ultimately drives total market volumes higher. According to the IDC assessment, Apple could therefore become the consumer wearables market benchmark, and competing vendors need to monitor their design and technology development. Now that Apple is officially a ...